Customer Reviews

Landscaping for Dummies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

You are just as likely to need the assistance of the above referenced title as you are to gain information from this book. It could be re-titled: "Gardening for Dummies" and possibly pass muster as a helpful guide. For landscaping - save your money and invest it in plantings. Most of the text is dedicated to construction projects (decks etc.) what plants are good for what purpose (height, width), and the value of good landscaping. Unfortunately the text discussing HOW to landscape effectively is breezed through with only the briefest nod to the MOST elemental concepts. A (with liberties taken) paraphrase," You will need dirt. Dirt is available at garden centers. Plants will not grow without it, so make sure you have some before you attempt to establish your plants." For any but the most significantly stupid, this book is useless for the purpose it alleges to serve. I would have given it a "0" star rating, but that isn't an option.

I found the book to be useful in terms of providing some overall ideas for what can be done to a landscape, but useless in terms of actually getting down to the business of landscaping.

For instance, the section about grass types lists 8 different grasses for my region, which is nice, but it doesn't give you any real way to compare and contrast those 8 types to choose which one you want. For some grasses it tells you if they are seed or sod, but it doesn't give that info for all the grasses. Same thing for shade or sun, disease resistance, etc... In the end I had to go to other sources to figure out which type of grass I wanted in my yard.

Same thing happened when picking shrubs. Pictures of different shrub types would have been helpful, but instead there were just basic descriptions that were hard to compare and contrast among the shrub types.

This book is very general and not that useful for people who are actually ready to start landscaping and need help making the decisions about what will go into their yard. I was pretty disapointed because I've had great luck with other For Dummies books.

I've been working in commercial landscaping off and on for nearly four years now. I borrowed this book from a friend just to check it out. I think if you are a new homeowner and don't have much experience in landscaping then this book will probably work. If you are familiar with planting tree's and shrubs, bricklaying, fencing, and bordering, then maybe you should try and find something a little more advance. I suppose it depends on how big the project is you are working on.

Did not tell me what I needed to know to pick plants for my yard. I found most of what I needed in Sunset's Western Garden Book (I'm in the western US).

`Landscaping for Dummies' by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim and a cast of thousands is a typically ironic example of what you will find in this huge `Dummies' series of books, which started out as a series of texts for PC subjects, where the PC had a knack of making us all feel like dummies. Since then, it has expanded to touch virtually every `practical' subject in the known universe. That is, I haven't seen any `Wittgenstein for Dummies' or `Quantum Thermodynamics for Dummies', as neither of these subjects are things the average intelligent, but uninformed person is likely to pick up to brief themselves for a weekend project of as a start to a new hobby.

The irony of this particular volume is that you really can't make full use of it if you don't have a good head on your shoulders and a fair amount of book learning under your belt, including such arcane High School subjects such as geometry and some building skills such as working with mortar, power saws, a level, and a full-sized shovel.

The first thing you discover is that landscaping is a really big subject. You probably didn't know this, or you would not be considering buying this book. In four `parts', the book breaks the subject down into Designing, Hardscaping, Planting, Planning, and Tips for putting Landscaping to good use. Since this book (and all books in this series) advertises itself as `A Reference for the Rest of Us', I can't complain too much about the odd order of these five subjects, but it does seem that `Objectives' and `Planning' should be Parts I and II respectively, rather than Parts V and IV. I confess that I even bought the book exclusively for its Hardscaping chapter, so I didn't care if that came before or after planning.

Regarding the Hardscaping material, I found it remarkably advanced for a `dummy'. The projects start with simple walkways, but quickly advance to retaining walls, brick walls, and fences. My biggest surprise was the depth to which one must build deep planning into so simple a job as a retaining wall that is installed to square off an annoying slope in your yard. Not only do you have to lay a deep foundation, you also need to worry about drainage and install a special drainage pipe to carry off rainwater. Who Knew!!!

In other Parts of the book, it devotes relatively short chapters to subjects to which one could easily dedicate a whole book. One example is in the selection of a tree or trees to plant in your landscaping project. I looked at the description for Japanese maple (since I happen to have one of these) and found the entry reasonable, but possibly not as detailed as one may want, since it glossed over the fact that the difference in growing speed and average height of the different varieties of Acer Palmatum are sizable, and one will be disappointed if they get the tall lanky variety, when they wanted the low, burly `weeping' variety.

But, if what you want is a first book on the subject, you could really do a lot worse. It has the one essential ingredient for an introductory book, a comprehensive bibliography, which includes not only books, but lots of magazines, professional organizations, and international web sites for getting more information.

I rarely resort to books in this series, but for those of you who want to venture into do it yourself landscaping, this is probably better, and possibly far better than, for example, the `Home Depot' manual on the subject.

A very informative tome, but I think its tries to achieve too much in what is a rather large and varied subject. Should focus on the basics.............but to be fair still an excellent guide

My novice son is finding this book helpful. Down to earth and informative. He needs all the help he can get!!!!!!!!!!!

This book will give you a basic understanding on what and where to place plants and flowers as well as an idea what is the best grass for the kind of weather in your area. It breaks things down to plain english and provides step by step procedures on landscaping.

This book is okay for homeowners wanting easy landscaping to-do them selfs. If you are looking at starting a landscaping business, this is not the book for you. Over all it is Okay.